Shirburn Castle

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Shirburn Castle, near Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, is the seat of the Earls of Macclesfield.

George Parker, 2nd Earl of Macclesfield (c.1695–1764), celebrated as an astronomer, spent most of his time conducting astronomical observations at Shirburn Castle, which had been bought by his father in 1716; here he built an observatory and a chemical laboratory.

In 1761, the astronomer Thomas Hornsby observed the transit of Venus from the castle grounds.

The present owner of the castle is the Beechwood Estates Company, the Macclesfield family estate management company. Following a long-running and acrimonious court battle, the 9th Earl of Macclesfield, Richard Timothy George Mansfield Parker, was evicted from the family seat at the end of 2004 and the castle presently stands unoccupied.